COMPARISON OF SOLON AND POPLICOLA.

XXIII.The Romans, accustomed as they are to refer all great success to the intervention of Heaven, thought that the whole glory of this achievement was due to the general. The first thing heard was the victorious soldiers declaring that Poplicola had delivered up the enemy to them blind and lame, and all but in chains, for them to slaughter at their ease. The people were enriched by the plunder and the sale of the prisoners for slaves. Poplicola enjoyed a triumph, and previously delivering over the administration of the city to the two succeeding consuls, died shortly afterwards, having attained to the highest pitch of glory that man can reach. The people, as if they had done nothing during his life to honour him as he deserved, and were now for the first time to show their gratitude, decreed him a public funeral, and moreover that every person should contribute the coin calledquadrans, to show him respect. The women also made a common agreement to wear mourning for him for a whole year. He was buried by a decree of the people within the city near the place called Velia, and all his family were given the privilege of burial there. At the present day not one of the family is actually buried there, but the corpse is carried thither, and laid down, while some one places a lighted torch under it for a moment, after which it is carried away. By this ceremony they claim the right, although they forego it, and bury the corpse outside the city.

I.It is a point peculiar to this comparison, and which does not occur in any of the other Lives which I have written, that in turn one imitates and the other bears witness to his fellow's deeds. Observe, for instance, Solon's definition of happiness before Croesus, how much better it suits Poplicola than Tellus. He says that Tellus was fortunate because of his good luck, his virtue, and his noble children; but yet he makes no mention of him or of his children in his poetry, and he never was a man of any renown, or held any high office.

Now Poplicola's virtues made him the most powerful and glorious of the Romans during his life, and six hundred years after his death the very noblest families of Rome, those named Publicola and Messala and Valerius, are proud to trace their descent from him, even at the present day. Tellus, it is true, died like a brave man fighting in the ranks, but Poplicola slew his enemies, which is much better than being killed oneself, and made his country victorious by skill as a general and a statesman, and, after triumphing and enjoying honours of every kind, died the death which Solon thought so enviable. Besides, Solon, in his answer to Mimnermus about the time of life, has written the verses:

"To me may favouring Heaven send,That all my friends may mourn my end,"

in which he bears witness to the good fortune of Poplicola; for he, when he died, was mourned not only by all his friends and relations but by the whole city, in which thousands wept for him, while all the women wore mourning for him as if he were a son or father of them all that they had lost.

Solon says in his poems,

"I long for wealth, but not procuredBy means unholy."

Now Poplicola not only possessed wealth honourably acquired, but also was able to spend it, much to his credit, in relieving the needy. Thus if Solon was the wisest, Poplicola was certainly the most fortunate of men; for what Solon prayed for as the greatest blessing, Poplicola possessed and enjoyed to the end of his days.

II.Thus has Solon done honour to Poplicola; and he again honoured Solon by regarding him as the best model a man could follow in establishing a free constitution: for he took away the excessive power and dignity of the consuls and made them inoffensive to the people, and indeed made use of many of Solon's own laws; as he empowered the people to elect their own consuls, and gave defendants a right of appeal to the people from other courts, just as Solon had done. He did not, like Solon, make two senates, but he increased the existing one to nearly double its number. His grounds for the appointment of quaestors was to give the consul leisure for more important matters, if he was an honest man; and if he was a bad man, to remove the opportunity of fraud which he would have had if he were supreme over the state and the treasury at once. In hatred of tyrants Poplicola exceeded Solon, for he fixed the penalty for a man who might be proved to be attempting to make himself king, whereas the Roman allowed any one to kill him without trial. And while Solon justly prided himself upon his having been offered the opportunity to make himself despot, with the full consent of his fellow-countrymen, and yet having refused it, Poplicola deserves even greater credit for having been placed in an office of almost despotic power, and having made it more popular, not using the privileges with which he was entrusted. Indeed Solon seems to have been the first to perceive that a people

"Obeys its rulers best,When not too free, yet not too much opprest."

III.The relief of debtors was a device peculiar to Solon, which, more than anything else confirmed the liberty of the citizens. For laws to establish equality are of no use if poor men are prevented from enjoying it because of their debts; and in the states which appear to be the most free, men become mere slaves to the rich, and conduct the whole business of the state at their dictation. It should be especially noted that although an abolition of debt would naturally produce a civil war, yet this measure of Solon's, like an unusual but powerful dose of medicine, actually put an end to the existing condition of internal strife; for the well-known probity of Solon's character outweighed the discredit of the means to which he resorted. In fact Solon began his public life with greater glory than Poplicola, for he was the leading spirit, and followed no man, but entirely single handed effected the most important reforms; while Poplicola was more enviable and fortunate at the close of his career.

Solon himself saw his own constitution overthrown, while that of Poplicola preserved order in the city down to the time of the civil wars; and the reason was that Solon, as soon as he had enacted his laws, went on his travels, leaving them written on wooden tablets, defenceless against all assailants; whereas Poplicola remained at home, acted as consul, and by his statesmanship ensured the success and permanence of the new constitution. Moreover, Solon could not stop Peisistratus, although he perceived his designs, but was forced to see a despotism established; while Poplicola destroyed a monarchy which had existed for many years, showing equal virtue with Solon, but greater good fortune and power to enable him to carry out his intentions.

IV.With regard to warlike achievements, Daimachus of Plataea will not even admit that Solon made the campaign against the Megarians, which we have related; but Poplicola both by strategy and personal valour won many great battles. As a statesman, Solon seems to have acted somewhat childishly in pretending that he was mad, in order to make his speech about Salamis, while Poplicola ran the very greatest risks in driving out the tyrant and crushing the conspiracy. He was especially responsible for the chief criminals being put to death, and thus not only drove the Tarquins out of the city, but cut off and destroyed their hopes of return. And while he showed such vigour in enterprises that required spirit and courage, he was equally admirable in peaceful negotiations and the arts of persuasion; for he skilfully won over the formidable Porsena to be the friend instead of the enemy of Rome.

Still we may be reminded that Solon stirred up the Athenians to capture Salamis, which they had given up to the Megarians, while Poplicola withdrew the Romans from a country which they had conquered. We must, however, consider the circumstances under which these events took place. A subtle politician deals with every thing so as to turn it to the greatest advantage, and will often lose a part in order to save the whole, and by sacrificing some small advantage gain another more important one, as did Poplicola on that occasion; for he, by withdrawing from a foreign country, preserved his own, gained the enemy's camp for the Romans, who before were only too glad to save their city from ruin, and at last, by converting his enemy into an arbitrator and winning his cause, obtained all the fruits of victory: for Porsena put an end to the war, and left behind him all his war material to show his respect for the noble character of the consul.

I.Themistokles came of a family too obscure to entitle him to distinction. His father, Neokles, was a middle-class Athenian citizen, of the township of Phrearri and the tribe Leontis. He was base born on his mother's side, as the epigram tells us:

"My name's Abrotonon from Thrace,I boast not old Athenian race;Yet, humble though my lineage be,Themistokles was born of me."

Phanias, however, says that the mother of Themistokles was a Carian, not a Thracian, and that her name was not Abrotonon but Euterpe. Manthes even tells us that she came from the city of Halikarnassus in Caria. All base-born Athenians were made to assemble at Kynosarges, a gymnasium outside the walls sacred to Herakles, who was regarded as base born among the gods because his mother was a mortal; and Themistokles induced several youths of noble birth to come to Kynosarges with him and join in the wrestling there, an ingenious device for destroying the exclusive privileges of birth. But, for all that, he evidently was of the blood of Lykomedes; for when the barbarians burned down the temple of the Initiation at Phlya, which belonged to the whole race of the descendants of Lykomedes, it was restored by Themistokles, as we are told by Simonides.

II.He is agreed by all to have been a child of vigorous impulses, naturally clever, and inclined to take an interest in important affairs and questions of statesmanship. During his holidays and times of leisure he did not play and trifle as other children do, but was always found arranging some speech by himself and thinking it over. The speech was always an attack on, or a defence of, some one of his playfellows. His schoolmaster was wont to say, "You will be nothing petty, my boy; you will be either a very good or a very bad man."

In his learning, he cared nothing for the exercises intended to form the character, and mere showy accomplishments and graces, but eagerly applied himself to all real knowledge, trusting to his natural gifts to enable him to master what was thought to be too abstruse for his time of life. In consequence of this, when in society he was ridiculed by those who thought themselves well mannered and well educated, he was obliged to make the somewhat vulgar retort that he could not tune a lute or play upon the harp, but he could make a small and obscure state great and glorious.

In spite of all this, Stesimbrotus says that Themistokles was a pupil of Anaxagoras, and attended the lectures of Melissus the physicist; but here he is wrong as to dates. Melissus was the general who was opposed to Perikles, a much younger man than Themistokles, when he was besieging Samos, and Anaxagoras was one of Perikles's friends. One is more inclined to believe those who tell us that Themistokles was a follower and admirer of Mnesiphilus of Phrearri, who was neither an orator nor a natural philosopher, but a man who had deeply studied what went by the name of wisdom, but was really political sharp practice and expedients of statesmanship, which he had, as it were, inherited as a legacy from Solon. Those who in later times mixed up this science with forensic devices, and used it, not to deal with the facts of politics, but the abstract ideas of speculative philosophy, were named Sophists. Themistokles used to converse with this man when he had already begun his political career. In his childhood he was capricious and unsteady, his genius, as yet untempered by reason and experience, showing great capacities both for good and evil, and after breaking out into vice, as he himself used afterwards to admit, saying that the colts which are the hardest to break in usually make the most valuable horses when properly taught. But as for the stories which some have fabricated out of this, about his being disinherited by his father, and about his mother committing suicide through grief at her son's disgrace, they seem to be untrue. On the other hand, some writers tell us that his father, wishing to dissuade him from taking part in politics, pointed out to him the old triremes lying abandoned on the beach, and told him that politicians, when the people had no farther use for them, were cast aside in like manner.

III.Very early in life Themistokles took a vigorous part in public affairs, possessed by vehement ambition. Determined from the very outset that he would become the leading man in the state, he eagerly entered into all the schemes for displacing those who where then at the head of affairs, especially attacking Aristeides, the son of Lysimachus, whose policy he opposed on every occasion. Yet his enmity with this man seems to have had a very boyish commencement; for they both entertained a passion for the beautiful Stesilaus, who, we are told by Ariston the philosopher, was descended from a family residing in the island of Keos. After this difference they espoused different parties in the state, and their different temper and habits widened the breach between them. Aristeides was of a mild and honourable nature, and as a statesman cared nothing for popularity or personal glory, but did what he thought right with great caution and strict rectitude. He was thus often brought into collision with Themistokles, who was trying to engage the people in many new schemes, and to introduce startling reforms, by which he would himself have gained credit, and which Aristeides steadily opposed.

He is said to have been so recklessly ambitious and so frenziedly eager to take part in great events, that though he was very young at the time of the battle of Marathon, when the country rang with the praises of the generalship of Miltiades, he was often to be seen buried in thought, passing sleepless nights and refusing invitations to wine-parties, and that he answered those who asked him the cause of his change of habits, that the trophies of Miltiades would not let him sleep. Other men thought that the victory of Marathon had put an end to the war, but Themistokles saw that it was but the prelude to a greater contest, in which he prepared himself to stand forth as the champion of Greece, and, foreseeing long before what was to come, endeavoured to make the city of Athens ready to meet it.

IV.First of all, he had the courage to propose that the Athenians, instead of dividing amongst themselves the revenues derived from the silver mines at Laurium, should construct ships out of this fund for the war with Aegina. This was then at its height, and the Aeginetans, who had a large navy, were masters of the sea. By this means Themistokles was more easily enabled to carry his point, not trying to terrify the people by alluding to Darius and the Persians, who lived a long way off, and whom few feared would ever come to attack them, but by cleverly appealing to their feelings of patriotism against the Aeginetans, to make them consent to the outlay.

With that money a hundred triremes were built, which were subsequently used to fight against Xerxes. After this he kept gradually turning the thoughts of the Athenians in the direction of the sea, because their land force was unable even to hold its own against the neighbouring states, while with a powerful fleet they could both beat off the barbarians and make themselves masters of the whole of Greece. Thus, as Plato says, instead of stationary soldiers as they were, he made them roving sailors, and gave rise to the contemptuous remark that Themistokles took away from the citizens of Athens the shield and the spear, and reduced them to the oar and the rower's bench. This, we are told by Stesimbrotus, he effected after quelling the opposition of Miltiades, who spoke on the other side. Whether his proceedings at this time were strictly constitutional or no I shall leave to others to determine; but that the only safety of Greece lay in its fleet, and that those triremes were the salvation of the Athenians after their city was taken, can be proved by the testimony, among others, of Xerxes himself; for although his land force was unbroken, he fled after his naval defeat, as though no longer able to contend with the Greeks, and he left Mardonius behind more to prevent pursuit, in my opinion, than with any hopes of conquest.

V.Some writers tell us that he was a keen man of business, and explain that his grand style of living made this necessary; for he made costly sacrifices, and entertained foreigners in a splendid manner, all of which required a large expenditure; but some accuse him of meanness and avarice, and even say that he sold presents which were sent for his table. When Philides the horse-dealer refused to sell him a colt, he threatened that he would soon make a wooden horse of the man's house; meaning that he would stir up lawsuits and claims against him from some of his relations.

In ambition he surpassed every one. When yet a young and unknown man he prevailed upon Epikles of Hermione, the admired performer on the harp, to practise his art in his house, hoping thereby to bring many people to it to listen. And he displeased the Greeks when he went to the Olympian games by vying with Kimon in the luxury of his table, his tents, and his other furniture. It was thought very proper for Kimon, a young man of noble birth, to do so; but for a man who had not yet made himself a reputation, and had not means to support the expense, such extravagance seemed mere vulgar ostentation. In the dramatic contest, which even then excited great interest and rivalry, the play whose expenses he paid for won the prize. He put up a tablet in memory of his success bearing the words: Themistokles of Phrearri was choragus, Phrynichus wrote the play, Adeimantus was archon. Yet he was popular, for he knew every one of the citizens by name, and gave impartial judgment in all cases referred to him as arbitrator. Once, when Simonides of Keos asked him to strain a point in his favour, Themistokles, who was a general at the time, answered that Simonides would be a bad poet if he sang out of tune; and he would be a bad magistrate if he favoured men against the law. At another time he rallied Simonides on his folly in abusing the Corinthians, who inhabited so fine a city, and in having his own statue carved, though he was so ugly. He continued to increase in popularity by judiciously courting the favour of the people, and was at length able to secure the triumph of his own party, and the banishment of his rival Aristeides.

VI.As the Persians were now about to invade Greece, the Athenians deliberated as to who should be their leader. It is said that most men refused the post of General through fear, but that Epikydes, the son of Euphemides, a clever mob-orator, but cowardly and accessible to bribes, desired to be appointed, and seemed very likely to be elected. Themistokles, fearing that the state would be utterly ruined if its affairs fell into such hands, bribed him into forgetting his ambitious designs, and withdrawing his candidature.

He was much admired for his conduct when envoys came from the Persian king to demand earth and water, in token of submission. He seized the interpreter, and by a decree of the people had him put to death, because he had dared to translate the commands of a barbarian into the language of free Greeks. He acted in the same way to Arthmias of Zelea. This man, at the instance of Themistokles, was declared infamous, he and his children and his descendants for ever, because he brought Persian gold among the Greeks. His greatest achievement of all, however, was, that he put an end to all the internal wars in Greece, and reconciled the states with one another, inducing them to defer the settlement of their feuds until after the Persian war. In this he is said to have been greatly assisted by Chileon the Arcadian.

VII.On his appointment as General, he at once endeavoured to prevail upon his countrymen to man their fleet, leave their city, and go to meet the enemy by sea as far from Greece as possible. As this met with great opposition, he, together with the Lacedaemonians, led a large force as far as the Vale of Tempe, which they intended to make their first line of defence, as Thessaly had not at that time declared for the Persians. When, however, the armies were forced to retire from thence, and all Greece, up to Boeotia, declared for the Persians, the Athenians became more willing to listen to Themistokles about fighting by sea, and he was sent with a fleet to guard the straits at Artemisium. Here the Greeks chose the Lacedaemonians, and their general, Eurybiades, to take the command; but the Athenians refused to submit to any other state, because they alone furnished more ships than all the rest. Themistokles, at this crisis perceiving the danger, gave up his claims to Eurybiades, and soothed the wounded pride of the Athenians, telling them that if they proved themselves brave men in the war, they would find that all the other states in Greece would cheerfully recognise their supremacy. On this account he seems more than any one else to deserve the credit of having saved Greece, and to have covered the Athenians with glory by teaching them to surpass their enemies in bravery, and their allies in good sense. When the Persian fleet reached Aphetai, Eurybiades was terrified at the number of ships at the mouth of the Straits, and, learning that two hundred sail more were gone round the outside of Euboea to take him in the rear, he at once wished to retire further into Greece, and support the fleet by the land army in Peloponnesus, for he regarded the Persian king's fleet as utterly irresistible at sea. Upon this the Euboeans, who feared to be deserted by the Greeks, sent one Pelagon with a large sum of money, to make secret proposals to Themistokles. He took the money, Herodotus tells us, and gave it to Eurybiades and his party. One of those who most vehemently opposed him was Architeles, the captain of the Sacred Trireme, who had not sufficient money to pay his crew, and therefore wished to sail back to Athens. Themistokles stirred up the anger of his men to such a pitch that they rushed upon him and took away his supper. At this, Architeles was much vexed, but Themistokles sent him a basket containing bread and meat, with a talent of silver hidden underneath it, with a message bidding him eat his supper and pay his men the next day, but that, if he did not, Themistokles would denounce him to his countrymen as having received bribes from the enemy. This we are told by Phanias of Lesbos.

VIII.The battles which took place in the Straits with the Persian ships, were indeed indecisive, but the experience gained in them was of the greatest value to the Greeks, as they were taught by their result that multitudes of ships and splendid ensigns, and the boastful war-cries of barbarians, avail nothing against men who dare to fight hand to hand, and that they must disregard all these and boldly grapple with their enemies. Pindar seems to have understood this when he says, about the battle at Artemisium, that there

"The sons of Athena laidTheir freedom's grand foundation."

for indeed confidence leads to victory. This Artemisium is a promontory of the island of Euboea, stretching northwards beyond Hestiaea; and opposite to it is Olizon, which was once part of the dominions of Philoktetes. There is upon it a small temple of Artemis (Diana), which is called the "Temple towards the East." Round it stand trees and a circle of pillars of white stone. This stone, when rubbed in the hand, has the colour and smell of saffron. On one of these pillars were written the following verses:

"The sons of Athens once o'ercame in fightAll Asia's tribes, on yonder sea;They raised these pillars round Diana's shrine,To thank her for their victory."

Even now a place is pointed out on the beach where, under a great heap of sand, there is a deep bed of black ashes where it is thought the wrecks and dead bodies were burned.

IX.But when the news of Thermopylae was brought to the Greeks at Artemisium, that Leonidas had fallen, and Xerxes was in possession of the passes, they retired further into Greece, the Athenians protecting the rear on account of their bravery, and full of pride at their achievements. At all the harbours and landing-places along the coast, Themistokles, as he passed by, cut conspicuous inscriptions on stones, some of which he found on the spot, and others which he himself set up at all the watering-places and convenient stations for ships. In these inscriptions he besought the Ionians, if possible, to come over to the Athenians, who were their fathers, and who were fighting for their liberty; and if they could not do this, to throw the barbarian army into confusion during battle. He hoped that these writings would either bring the Ionians over to the side of the Greeks, or make them suspected of treason by the Persians.

Meanwhile Xerxes invaded Greece through Doris, and came into Phokis, where he burned the city of the Phokaeans. The Greeks made no resistance, although the Athenians begged them to make a stand in Boeotia, and cover Attica, urging that they had fought in defence of the whole of Greece at Artemisium. However, as no one would listen to them, but all the rest of the Greeks determined to defend the Peloponnesus, and were collecting all their forces within it, and building a wall across the Isthmus from sea to sea, the Athenians were enraged at their treachery, and disheartened at being thus abandoned to their fate. They had no thoughts of resisting so enormous an army; and the only thing they could do under the circumstances, to abandon their city and trust to their ships, was distasteful to the people, who saw nothing to be gained by victory, and no advantage in life, if they had to desert the temples of their gods and the monuments of their fathers.

X.At this crisis, Themistokles, despairing of influencing the populace by human reasoning, just as a dramatist has recourse to supernatural machinery, produced signs and wonders and oracles. He argued that it was a portent that the sacred snake during those days deserted his usual haunt. The priests, who found their daily offerings to him of the first fruits of the sacrifices left untouched, told the people, at the instigation of Themistokles, that the goddess Athena (Minerva) had left the city, and was leading them to the sea. He also swayed the popular mind by the oracle, in which he argued that by "wooden walls" ships were alluded to; and that Apollo spoke of Salamis as "divine," not terrible or sad, because Salamis would be the cause of great good fortune to the Greeks. Having thus gained his point, he proposed a decree, that the city be left to the care of the tutelary goddess of the Athenians, that all able-bodied men should embark in the ships of war, and that each man should take the best measures in his power to save the women and children and slaves.

When this decree was passed, most of the Athenians sent their aged folks and women over to Troezen, where they were hospitably received by the Troezenians, who decreed that they should be maintained at the public expense, receiving each two obols a day, that the children should be allowed to pick the fruit from any man's tree, and even that their school expenses should be paid. This decree was proposed by Nikagoras.

The Athenians at this time had no public funds, yet Aristotle tells us that the Senate of the Areopagus, by supplying each fighting man with eight drachmas, did good service in manning the fleet; and Kleidemus tells us that this money was obtained by an artifice of Themistokles. When the Athenians were going down to the Peiraeus, he gave out that the Gorgon's head had been lost from the statue of the goddess. Themistokles, under pretext of seeking for it, searched every man, and found great stores of money hidden in their luggage, which he confiscated, and thus was able to supply the crews of the ships with abundance of necessaries. When the whole city put to sea, the sight affected some to pity, while others admired their courage in sending their families out of the way that they might not be disturbed by weeping and wailing as they went over to Salamis. Yet many of the aged citizens who were left behind at Athens afforded a piteous sight; and even the domestic animals, as they ran howling to the sea-shore, accompanying their masters, touched men's hearts. It is said that the dog of Xanthippus, the father of Perikles, could not endure to be separated from him, and jumping into the sea swam alongside of his trireme, reached Salamis, and then at once died. His tomb is even now to be seen at the place called Kynossema.

XI.Besides these great achievements, Themistokles, perceiving that his countrymen longed to have Aristeides back again, and fearing that he might ally himself with the Persian, and work ruin to Greece out of anger against his own country (for Aristeides had been banished from Athens before the war when Themistokles came into power), proposed a decree, that any citizen who had been banished for a term of years, might return and do his best by word and deed to serve his country together with the other citizens.

Eurybiades, on account of the prestige of Sparta, held the chief command of the fleet, but was unwilling to risk a battle, preferring to weigh anchor and sail to the Isthmus where the land army of the Peloponnesians was assembled. This project was opposed by Themistokles; and it was on this occasion that he made use of the following well-known saying: When Eurybiades said to him, "Themistokles, in the public games they whip those who rise before their turn." "True," said Themistokles, "but they do not crown those who lag behind." And when Eurybiades raised his staff as if he would strike him, Themistokles said, "Strike, but hear me." When Eurybiades, in wonder at his gentle temper, bade him speak, he again urged Eurybiades to remain at Salamis. Some one then said, that a man without a city had no right to tell those who still possessed one to abandon it, but Themistokles turning upon him, answered, "Wretch, we Athenians have indeed abandoned our walls and houses, because we scorn to be slaves for the sake of mere buildings, but we have the greatest city of all Greece, our two hundred ships of war, which now are ready to help you if you choose to be saved by their means; but, if you betray us and leave us, some of the Greeks will soon learn to their cost that the Athenians have obtained a free city and a territory no worse than that which they left behind." When Eurybiades heard Themistokles use this language, he began to fear that the Athenians might really sail away and leave him.

When Eretrieus tried to say something to Themistokles, he answered, "Do you too dare to say anything about war, you, who like a cuttle-fish, have a sword but no heart."

XII.It is said by some writers that while Themistokles was talking about these matters upon the deck of his ship, an owl was seen to fly from the right-hand side of the fleet, and to perch upon his mast; which omen encouraged all the Athenians to fight. But when the Persian host poured down to Phalerum, covering the whole sea-shore, and the king himself was seen with all his forces, coming down to the beach with the infantry, the Greeks forgot the words of Themistokles, and began to cast eager glances towards the Isthmus and to be angry with any one who proposed to do anything else than withdraw. They determined to retire by night, and the steersmen were given orders to prepare for a voyage. Themistokles, enraged at the idea of the Greek fleet dispersing, and losing the advantage of the narrow waters, planned the affair of Sikinnus. This Sikinnus was a Persian who had been taken prisoner, and who was fond of Themistokles and took charge of his children. He sent this man secretly to Xerxes, ordering him to say that Themistokles, the general of the Athenians, has determined to come over to the king of the Persians, and is the first to tell him that the Greeks are about to retreat. He bids him not to allow them to fly, but to attack them while they are disheartened at not being supported by a land force, and destroy their fleet.

Xerxes, who imagined this to be said for his advantage, was delighted, and at once gave orders to the commanders of his ships to make ready for battle at their leisure, all but two hundred, whom he ordered to put to sea at once, surround the whole strait, and close up the passages through the islands, so that no one of the enemy could escape. While this was being done, Aristeides, the son of Lysimachus, who was the first to perceive it, came to the tent of Themistokles, although the latter was his enemy, and had driven him into exile. When Themistokles came to meet him, he told him they were surrounded; knowing the frank and noble character of Aristeides, Themistokles told him the whole plot, and begged him as a man in whom the Greeks could trust, to encourage them to fight a battle in the straits. Aristeides praised Themistokles for what he had done, and went round to the other generals and captains of ships, inciting them to fight. Yet they were inclined to doubt even the word of Aristeides, when a trireme from the island of Tenos, under the command of Panaitios, came in, having deserted from the enemy, and brought the news that the Greeks were really surrounded. Then, in a spirit of anger and despair, they prepared for the struggle.

XIII.At daybreak Xerxes took his seat on a high cliff overlooking all his host, just above the Temple of Herakles, we are told by Phanodemus, where the strait between Salamis and Attica is narrowest, but according to Akestodorus, close to the Megarian frontier, upon the mountains called Horns. Here he sat upon the golden throne, with many scribes standing near, whose duty it was to write down the events of the battle.

While Themistokles was sacrificing on the beach, beside the admiral's ship, three most beautiful captive boys were brought to him, splendidly adorned with gold and fine clothes. They were said to be the children of Sandauke, the sister of Xerxes, and Artäuktes. When Euphrantides the prophet saw them, there shone at once from the victims on the altar a great and brilliant flame, and at the same time some one was heard to sneeze on the right hand, which is a good omen. Euphrantides now besought Themistokles to sacrifice these young men as victims to Dionysus, to whom human beings are sacrificed; so should the Greeks obtain safety and victory. Themistokles was struck with horror at this terrible proposal; but the multitude, who, as is natural with people in great danger, hoped to be saved by miraculous rather than by ordinary means, called upon the God with one voice, and leading the captives up to the altar, compelled him to offer them up as the prophet bade him. This story rests on the authority of Phanias of Lesbos, who was a man of education, and well read in history.

XIV.As for the numbers of the Persian fleet, the poet Aeschylus, as though he knew it clearly, writes as follows in his tragedy of the Persae:

"And well I know a thousand sailThat day did Xerxes meet,And seven and two hundred more,The fastest of his fleet."

The Athenian ships, a hundred and eighty in number, had each eighteen men on deck, four of whom were archers, and the rest heavy-armed soldiers. Themistokles now chose the time for the battle as judiciously as he had chosen the place, and would not bring his triremes into line of battle before the fresh wind off the sea, as is usual in the morning, raised a heavy swell in the straits. This did not damage the low flat ships of the Greeks, but it caught the high-sterned Persian ships, over-weighted as they were with lofty decks, and presented their broadsides to the Greeks, who eagerly attacked them, watching Themistokles because he was their best example, and also because Ariamenes, Xerxes's admiral, and the bravest and best of the king's brothers, attacked him in a huge ship, from which, as if from a castle, he poured darts and arrows upon him.

But Ameinias of Dekeleia and Sokles of Pedia, who were both sailing in the same vessel, met him stem to stem. Each ship crashed into the other with its iron beak, and was torn open. Ariamenes attempted to board the Greek ship, but these two men set upon him with their spears, and drove him into the sea. His body was noticed by Queen Artemisia floating amongst the other wreckage, and was by her brought to Xerxes.

XV.At this period of the battle it is said that a great light was seen to shine from Eleusis, and that a great noise was heard upon the Thriasian plain near the sea, as though multitudes of men were escorting the mystic Iacchus in procession. From the place where these sounds were heard a mist seemed to spread over the sea and envelop the ships. Others thought that they saw spirit-forms of armed men come from Aegina, and hold their hands before the ships of the Greeks. These it was supposed were the Aeakid heroes, to whom prayers for help had been offered just before the battle. The first man to capture a ship was Lykomedes, an Athenian captain, who cut off its ensign and dedicated it to Apollo with the laurel crown at the Temple at Phlyae.

In the narrow straits the Persians were unable to bring more than a part of their fleet into action, and their ships got into each other's way, so that the Greeks could meet them on equal terms, and, although they resisted until evening, completely routed them, winning, as Simonides calls it, that "glorious and famous victory," the greatest exploit ever achieved at sea, which owed its success to the bravery of the sailors and the genius of Themistokles.

XVI.After this naval defeat, Xerxes, enraged at his failure, endeavoured to fill up the strait with earth, and so to make a passage for his land forces to Salamis, to attack the Greeks there. Now Themistokles, in order to try the temper of Aristeides, proposed that the fleet should sail to the Hellespont, and break the bridge of boats there, "in order," said he, "that we may conquer Asia in Europe." But Aristeides disapproved of this measure, saying, "Hitherto we have fought against the Persian king, while he has been at his ease; but if we shut him up in Greece, and drive the chief of so large an army to despair, he will no longer sit quietly under a golden umbrella to look on at his battles, but will strain every nerve and superintend every operation in person, and so will easily retrieve his losses and form better plans for the future."

"Instead of breaking down the existing bridge for him, Themistokles," said he, "we ought rather, if possible, at once to build another, and send the man out of Europe as quickly as possible." "Well then," answered Themistokles, "if you think that our interest lies in that direction, we ought all to consider and contrive to send him out of Greece as fast as we can." When this resolution was adopted, Themistokles sent one of the king's eunuchs, whom he had found among the prisoners, bidding him warn Xerxes that "the Greeks had determined after their victory to sail to the Hellespont and break the bridge, but that Themistokles, out of his regard for the king, advises him to proceed as fast as he can to his own sea, and cross over it, while he (Themistokles) gained time for him by delaying the allied fleet." Xerxes, hearing thus, was much alarmed and retired in all haste. And indeed the battle with Mardonius at Plataea shows us which of the two was right; for the Greeks there could scarcely deal with a small part of the Persian army, and what therefore could they have done with the whole?

XVII.Herodotus tells us that, of Greek States, Aegina received the prize of valour, and that, of the generals, it was awarded to Themistokles, though against the will of the voters. When the armies retired to the Isthmus all the generals laid their votes on the altar there, and each man declared himself to deserve the first prize for valour, and Themistokles to deserve the second. However, the Lacedaemonians brought him home with them to Sparta, and gave Eurybiades the first prize for valour, but Themistokles that for wisdom, a crown of olive-leaves. They also gave him the best chariot in their city, and sent three hundred of their young men to escort him out of the country. It is also related that at the next Olympian games, when Themistokles appeared upon the race-course, all the spectators took no further interest in the contests, but passed the whole day in admiring and applauding him, and in pointing him out to such as were strangers; so that he was delighted, and said to his friends that he had now received his reward for all his labours on behalf of Greece.

XVIII.He was by nature excessively fond of admiration, as we may judge from the stories about him which have been preserved. Once, when he was made admiral of the Athenian fleet, he put off all the necessary business of his office until the day appointed for sailing, in order that he might have a great many dealings with various people all at once, and so appear to be a person of great influence and importance. And when he saw the corpses floating in the sea with gold bracelets and necklaces, he himself passed them by, but pointed them out to a friend who was following, saying, "Do you pick them up and keep them; for you are not Themistokles." A beautiful youth, named Antiphates, regarded him coolly at first, but eventually became submissive to him because of his immense reputation. "Young man," said Themistokles, "it has taken some time, but we have at length both regained our right minds." He used to say that the Athenians neither admired nor respected him, but used him like a plane-tree under which they took shelter in storm, but which in fair weather they lopped and stripped of its leaves. Once when a citizen of Seriphos said to him that he owed his glory, not to himself but to his city, he answered, "Very true; I should not have become a great man if I had been a Seriphian, nor would you if you had been an Athenian." When one of his fellow-generals, who thought that he had done the state good service, was taking a haughty tone, and comparing his exploits with those of Themistokles, he said, "The day after a feast, once upon a time, boasted that it was better than the feast-day itself, because on that day all men are full of anxiety and trouble, while upon the next day every one enjoys what has been prepared at his leisure. But the feast-day answered, 'Very true, only but for me you never would have been at all.' So now," said he, "if I had not come first, where would you all have been now?" His son, who was spoiled by his mother, and by himself to please her, he said was the most powerful person in Greece; for the Athenians ruled the Greeks, he ruled the Athenians, his wife ruled him, and his son ruled his wife. Wishing to be singular in all things, when he put up a plot of ground for sale, he ordered the crier to announce that there were good neighbours next to it. When two men paid their addresses to his daughter, he chose the more agreeable instead of the richer of the two, saying that he preferred a man without money to money without a man. Such was his character, as shown in his talk.

XIX.Immediately after the great war, he began to rebuild and fortify the city. In order to succeed in this, Theopompus says that he bribed the Spartan ephors into laying aside opposition, but most writers say that he outwitted them by proceeding to Sparta nominally on an embassy. Then when the Spartans complained to him that Athens was being fortified, and when Poliarchus came expressly from Aegina to charge him with it, he denied it, and bade them send commissioners to Athens to see whether it was true, wishing both to obtain time for the fortifications to be built, and also to place these commissioners in the hands of the Athenians, as hostages for his own safety. His expectations were realised; for the Lacedaemonians, on discovering the truth, did him no harm, but dissembled their anger and sent him away. After this he built Peiraeus, as he perceived the excellence of its harbours, and was desirous to turn the whole attention of the Athenians to naval pursuits. In this he pursued a policy exactly the opposite to that of the ancient kings of Attica; for they are said to have endeavoured to keep their subjects away from the sea, and to accustom them to till the ground instead of going on board ships, quoting the legend that Athene and Poseidon had a contest for the possession of the land, and that she gained a decision in her favour by the production of the sacred olive. Themistokles, on the other hand, did not so much "stick Peiraeus on to Athens," as Aristophanes the comic poet said, as make the city dependent upon Peiraeus, and the land dependent on the sea. By this means he transferred power from the nobles to the people, because sailors and pilots became the real strength of the State. For this reason the thirty tyrants destroyed the bema, or tribune on the place of public assembly, which was built looking towards the sea, and built another which looked inland, because they thought that the naval supremacy of Athens had been the origin of its democratic constitution, and that an oligarchy had less to fear from men who cultivated the land.

XX.Themistokles had even more extended views than these about making the Athenians supreme at sea. When Xerxes was gone, the whole Greek fleet was drawn up on shore for the winter at Pagasae. Themistokles then publicly told the Athenians that he had a plan which would save and benefit them all, but which must not be divulged. The Athenians bade him tell Aristeides only, and to execute his designs if he approved.

Themistokles then told Aristeides that his design was to burn the whole Greek fleet as they lay on the beach. But Aristeides came forward and told the people that no proposal could be more advantageous or more villainous; so that the Athenians forbade Themistokles to proceed with it. On another occasion the Lacedaemonians proposed, in a meeting of the Amphiktyonic council, that all States that had taken no part in the Persian war should be excluded from that council; Themistokles, fearing that if the Lacedaemonians should exclude Thessaly, Argos, and Thebes, they would have complete control over the votes, and be able to carry what measures they pleased, made representations to the various States, and influenced the votes of their deputies at the meeting, pointing out to them that there were only thirty-one States which took any part in the war, and that most of these were very small ones, so that it would be unreasonable for one or two powerful States to pronounce the rest of Greece outlawed, and be supreme in the council. After this he generally opposed the Lacedaemonians; wherefore they paid special court to Kimon, in order to establish him as a political rival to Themistokles.

XXI.Moreover, he made himself odious to the allies by sailing about the islands and wringing money from them. A case in point is the conversation which Herodotus tells us he held with the people of Andros, when trying to get money from them. He said that he was come, bringing with him two gods, Persuasion and Necessity; but they replied that they also possessed two equally powerful ones, Poverty and Helplessness, by whom they were prevented from supplying him with money. The poet, Timokreon of Rhodes, in one of his songs, writes bitterly of Themistokles, saying that he was prevailed upon by the bribes which he received from exiles to restore them to their native country, but abandoned himself, who was his guest and friend. The song runs as follows:

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